Apparatus which allows data sharing amongst computer program from different program environments

Abstract

The ADL system provides a way in which computer programs written in different programming languages can share data. The ADL system comprises the ADL language and the facilities necessary to perform the data sharing function. The ADL language uses the concept of a data description and conversion module. A data description and conversion module, or more simply, an ADL module is composed of declarations and plans. Each declaration is an ADL description of how a particular program environment represents data. The plan portion of the ADL module contains ADL statements that instruct the computer system to convert the data representations of the source program environment into the data representations of the target program environment.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A computer system having a first program environment and a second program environment, said system comprising: a creating mechanism, said creating mechanism comprising means for creating a data description and conversion module, said data description and conversion module comprising first program environment data describing means and second program environment data describing means and means for converting data described by said second program environment data describing means into data described by said first program environment data describing means;   a compiler, said compiler comprising means for compiling said data description and conversion module to create an executable conversion program;   an invoking mechanism, said invoking mechanism comprising means for invoking said executable conversion program, said executable conversion program being invoked by a first program from said first program environment to share data stored by a second program from said second program environment;   a parsing mechanism for parsing data descriptions from a particular program environment into source ADL (A Data Language) data descriptions; and   a translating mechanism for translating said source ADL data descriptions into target data descriptions, said source data descriptions being ADL data descriptions for a program environment different from said particular program environment.   
     
     
       2. A method for sharing data between computer programs in first and second program environments, said method comprising the machine executed steps of: creating a data description and conversion module, said data description and conversion module comprising first program environment data descriptions and second program environment data descriptions and means for converting data described by said second program environment data descriptions into data described by said first program environment data descriptions;   compiling said data description and conversion module into a conversion program; and   executing said conversion program to allow a first computer program from said first program environment to share data with a second computer program from said second program environment;   parsing data descriptions from a particular program environment into source ADL data descriptions; and   translating said source ADL data descriptions into target data descriptions, said source data descriptions being ADL (A Data Language) data descriptions for a program environment different from said particular program environment.   
     
     
       3. The method of claim 2 wherein said parsing step comprises the machine executed steps of: generating said data descriptions from an existing ADL data description;   annotating said data descriptions with ADL statements; and   parsing said annotated data descriptions into ADL data descriptions.